Monday, December 19, 2016

DSLR Narrowband (6nm Ha) Test

Always curious how well can a DSLR do with a narrowband filter.

This is from a single 1200s expo. With Canon t3i + 6nm Ha filter.


Setup:


The second expo touchess the roof ;-)


Non process version ...




Wednesday, December 14, 2016

12/12/2016 - Moon Occult Aldebaran

This is my first time viewing occultation !! Happened at 19:06 and I did see it via my 70x15 bino.



Thursday, November 10, 2016

2016/11/10 Still Struggling ...

Received a new reducer/rotator design (super great customer service !)


Have a reasonable good focus ...


But still get egg shape stars on some corners...
And it rotates with the CCD (main lens and reducer don't rotate)


This is the one CCD face "up"


Rotate CCD to "left" 90 degree


Rotate CCD to "right" 90 degree


Still need to find out why ... ;-(

Sunday, October 9, 2016

10/8/2016 Test New Equipment

Tested my new refractor at my backyard last night.
Pointed the scope to zenith (90 degree), takes many 10 sec exposures with L filter.
Imaging with my STT-8300 CCD, guiding is on with very smooth guiding curve.
The focuser is tighten too.

Here are some diagnosis images:


(1) You can see egg shape of stars at the top-left and top-right corners. 


(2) If I rotated the CCD to 90 degree, the egg shape stars are now at top-right and bottom-right corners.



(3) If I rotated the CCD to 180 degree, the egg shape stars are now at bottom-right and bottom-left corners


(4) If I rotated the CCD to 270 degree, the egg shape stars are now at bottom-left and top-right corners


I also point the scope to 45 degree and see if there is any flexure on the imaging train. The egg shape stars are still the same. I also tighten the focuser very hard so it should have nothing to do with flexure...

Monday, September 12, 2016

Veil - Narrow Band

First time using PI to combine different channels. Combined 2 nights, 8hr Ha + OIII 20min subs.
Pretty happy with this result.
More detail at http://www.astrobin.com/263408/


Monday, July 11, 2016

7/4/2016 BLM - Comet C/2015WZ and UGC 10491



Not a pretty picture but I really enjoy digging out the faint stuff from this 120sec exposure. I was trying to image this faint and small comet (5.5"), but found a weird shape of fuzzy. Turns out it is a galaxy with interesting shape.

FSQ-85 with 0.76x
SBIG-8300M
120s with L filter
Only process with flat and some stretch...

Saturday, July 9, 2016

7/4/2016 BLM - Imaging Veil Ha 4hr

Consider this is my first official night out to image with my CCD. Joined 3 other friends and do an all nigh imaging. The image above is not fully processed yet, will need more NB data. 12 sub, 1200sec each with 7nm Ha filter.



BLM is kind of in the middle of nowhere ...





A couple images of our setups...




There are some bullets on the ground... kind of scary...



Still learning SGP


Jing Wee took several very amazing Milky Way images for me !!